Friday, July 7, 2017

(Virtual) Palermo

It lies in a basin area created by three rivers and is surrounded by mountains.

It is also home to sixteen Catholic Churches dating from the 15th,16th, 18th and 19th Centuries.

One of which is Church of St.Mary of Gesu in Palermo.

Not to be mistaken with the church of the same name in the center of Rome.

Tour

https://youtu.be/C_g0Du6oOiI

The city is also home to

Orto botantico di Palermo

The Palermo Botanical Gardens.

Tour of Gardens

https://youtu.be/HvM5Uu8O4Uo

An interesting,a bit morbid, and well-travelled tourist destination in Palermo is The Capuchin Catacombs.

Where Capuchin Monks and assorted others (businessmen,women and children) opted to have their bodies hung to dry (fully clothed) in the catacombs instead of burial.

The catacombs exhibit over 8000 skeletal or mummified bodies.

Tours

https://youtu.be/_hhb4-G7w9Qhttps://youtu.be/dG9rg6jAkrY

The Patron Saint of Palermo is St. Rosalia

Known in Sicily as La Santuzza(Little Saint) she was born of a noble Norman family. Devoutly religious, she left her family to live in a cave on Mt.Pellegrino as a hermit. Her appearance to a hunter after her death supposedly led him to find her bones in the cave where he brought them to the city that was beset with The Plague at the time. She had ordered him to carry her bones through the city...which he did...three times. Shortly after this the plague ended and Saint Rosalia was deemed The Patron Saint of Palermo thereafter.

A sanctuary was built in the cave where her bones were found and they were laid back to rest there.